Technical Abstract:
Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is a major pest of food processing and storage facilities, especially wheat flour mills. Populations of this pest in a flour mill were monitored using pheromone traps over a four year period. During this time the mill was fumigated multiple times. Changes in the spatial patterns in trap capture among floors and among trap locations within a floor was evaluated. This data was used to address two related questions about pest populations critical for pest management. First, are hotspots in trap capture consistently associated with specific features of the landscape and, second, do pest populations tend to rebound after fumigations in the same locations? This type of information will help us better understand the distribution and dynamics of red flour beetle populations. It will also help in the more effective targeting of pest monitoring and management programs. Specifically, the answer to the first question is important in determining if monitoring efforts can be effectively focused on certain problem areas and the answer to the second question is important in evaluating the mechanism of pest resurgence after treatment.